WINTER BREAK: HIGHLIGHTS…AND LOWLIGHTS (PART I)

Believe it or not, I did it. I successfully planned and executed some kind of “big” activity with the girls every weekday during winter break. And by “big” I don’t necessarily mean some extravagant Disneyland excursion or a trip to Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. I mean something that would just take up a big chunk of the day and keep me from going insane. Unfortunately, the other half of my plan, to have people join us, didn’t quite work out as well.

After the unexpected turn out for my "Bowling Event" I couldn't find a single person to hang out with me and the girls. I was so desperate to have someone help me pass the time that I even asked my friends who didn't have kids, “I bet it’s been a long time since you’ve been to Chuck E. Cheese…They have the Star Wars Video Game now…It’s only a quarter…I’ll pay for your games…and your meal…Fine, go see Avatar instead.” As a result I spent the next two weeks with just the girls. Was it hell? At times. Was it fun? At times. Below is a list of highlights and lowlights from my adventures in winter break land.

WEEK ONE:

Monday: Pinz Bowling Center

Cost: $15 or $24 (depending on my math skills)
Description: “When you have time to spare.”
Highlights/Lowlights: See the previous blog entry for the skinny on this one.


Tuesday: Travel Town at Griffith Park

Cost: $11
Description: “Preserving and celebrating the rich railroad heritage of Los Angeles.” Who knew? The only things I saw that you can do there is take the world's lamest five-minute train ride (that kids miraculously seem to love) and trot on some ponies. We did both.
Highlight: Watching the horse “trainer” try and get Arden’s horse to slow down while she was saying, “Giddy up” and making it go faster.
Lowlight: When Arden refused to get off the train after I told her we couldn’t ride it a second time, which turned into a full-blown meltdown. And because I was carrying Alex there was no way I could pick up Arden too and carry her back to the car kicking and screaming so I had to try and talk her down and get her off the tracks while the next group of passengers watched and waited for my “reasoning” skills to kick in.


Wednesday: Chuck E Cheese

Cost: $16 ($5 in tokens and the rest for some cardboard pizza.)
Description: “Where a kid can be a kid.” Or where parents and nannies let their kids run wild thinking that just because there's an employee stamping hands at the door that means their kid is being supervised. They are not.
Highlight: When I told Arden it was time to go she actually said, “Okay.”
Lowlight: Unlike her fearless sister, I discovered Alex doesn’t like rides and I also discovered that Arden is no longer fearless when it comes to heights, which I learned when she got to the top of the indoor jungle gym and I had to help her down while holding the baby under my arm like a football.

Thursday: California Science Center

Cost: $5 Donation and a $3 Motion Odyssey Ride
Description: “The west coast’s largest hands-on science center.” I have to admit it’s a pretty awesome place.
Highlight: With it being New Year’s Eve Day the place was an absolute ghost town. We had the whole museum to ourselves and we had the entire staff in the discovery room catering to our every whim - Arden had her own personal craft teacher while I got to stretch out in a padded toddler area and see Alex stand on her own for the first time.
Lowlight: We walked over to the Air & Space Museum first only discover the elevator inside was broken and all the cool exhibits were upstairs. Up a lot of stairs. Steep stairs. And up a lot of steep stairs we went, with the baby in my arms where she stayed for the duration which was about 45 minutes or when my arms were officially declared dead.


Friday: Christmas Day
Cost: Too much and worth every penny.


Up Next: Week Two!